NYT Watch: Sulzberger Responds; Jack Welch Tweets

After Boston Globe reporters wrote a letter yesterday to New York Times Co. Chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr. pleading with him to be a “mensch” and not impose a 23% wage cut on its editorial staffers, the Times scion responded today:

Thank you for your letter.

My colleagues and I share your concern for the Globe and those who work there, and I’m gratified by your recognition of that despite all that surrounds us. You are correct that I had hoped this would work out differently, and that a timely solution would be found for the Globe to achieve the necessary savings without Guild employees suffering a huge wage cut.

Unfortunately, despite tireless efforts by Globe negotiators to do that just as they successfully did with each of the Globe’s other major unions, the Guild’s bargaining posture made that task impossible. We are now left with no alternative other than to proceed with the wage reduction. Without that, the Globe will be unable to effectuate the savings already ratified by its other unions, in which case it simply cannot survive. We cannot allow that to happen, so we, regrettably, will implement the wage reduction.

Despite my great concern for what’s happening at the Globe, all dealings on this subject must be with and through the Guild which, under law, is the employees’ sole and exclusive bargaining representative. To that end, negotiators for the Globe have already advised the Guild that they are ready and willing to meet and plan to do so Monday.

We all share a commitment to making the Globe stronger and more viable in the days ahead.

Sincerely,

Arthur Sulzberger, Jr.

“We are left with no alternative” but to proceed. Globe and Times negotiators will meet Monday. The Globe letter writers replied:

We invite you to come to Boston, to speak to us and hear from us directly. Your family has responded to countless challenges to newspapers, and there’s no reason we can’t succeed together now. We’re asking for you to lead us through these hard times.

Meanwhile, former GE CEO Jack Welch, who has become quite the Twitterer, ceased his sport-fanatic musings (last night was a “trifecta” for him, between victories by the Red Sox, Magic, and Penguins) to call the Times’s labor practices “brutish.”

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